Jimmy Kimmel and wife Molly McNearney’s relationship timeline
Jimmy Kimmel And Molly McNearney were colleagues for six years Jimmy Kimmel Live! before their relationship grew into something more.
McNearney, who started dating Kimmel in 2009, explained how their workplace friendship turned into a romance. “All the writers would talk to each other after the show, and we would hang out more and more. We really loved each other as friends, and then things just changed. He cooked for me, and that was it. It sealed the deal,” she said Glamour in 2014.
The couple got engaged during a safari in Africa in 2012 and exchanged vows in Ojai, California, in 2013. (Kimmel previously married Gina Maddy in 1988, but the couple divorced in 2002. They share daughter Katherine and son Kevin, whom they welcomed in 1991 and 1993, respectively.)
The late night host expanded his family when he and McNearney welcomed daughter Jane in July 2014, and son Billy arrived in April 2017.
Scroll through for a timeline of their relationship:
2003
McNearney joined the talk show’s team as an assistant to the executive producer — and didn’t have the best first interaction with her future husband. (She has since risen to co-head writer and executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live!)
“When I first met him, he was insulting to me,” recalls McNearney Glamour. “The executive producer brought me into his office and said, ‘This is Molly; she’s my new assistant.’ Jimmy barely looked up from his desk until my EP said, “She competes in triathlons,” and then Jimmy looked up at me and said, “That’s really stupid!” What a waste of time.'”
She explained that Kimmel then won her over with food, saying, “He cooked for me, and that was it.” It sealed the deal.”
August 2012
After nearly a decade together, Kimmel popped the question while on a safari in Africa.
July 2013
The couple tied the knot at the Ojai Valley Inn in front of several of their A-list friends, including Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon And Ellen DeGeneres.
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February 2014
Kimmel revealed during an appearance that his wife was pregnant The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and said, “It’s funny because I was just with some friends who had a baby. I thought, ‘Oh yeah.’ There are new ways of doing things.”
While joking about baby news, he joked, “Karate or The Riddler are the names we’re thinking about right now… And I’d like the baby’s middle name to be Effin. And not the cursed version of it, like Efin. Like Ellen Effin DeGeneres. I mean, what a great name, right?”
July 2014
Kimmel celebrated the arrival of daughter Jane in a sweet post via Thank you for all your sweet baby wishes – it turns out not ALL tweets are mean!”
For her part, McNearney wrote, “Kids, don’t do drugs. Until you have a baby. Then do them all.”
A rep for Kimmel also confirmed the baby news We weeklyand said McNearney “did a great job.”
April 2017
Kimmel and McNearney welcomed son Bill, who underwent multiple surgeries after birth for congenital heart defects. Kimmel announced the news during a monologue Jimmy Kimmel Live!and McNearney later said she wasn’t prepared for how emotional it would be.
“So there I am, sitting in my living room, breastfeeding Billy with my mom next to me, and we’re watching,” McNearney said The Hollywood Reporter in December 2017. “I sobbed through the whole thing. I couldn’t believe the strength it took to tell that story a week after it happened. He didn’t have to do that.”
She continued, “Our family has excellent health care; he had nothing to gain from that. He did it for the other people we met in that hospital. He came home that night and I just hugged him and didn’t want to let him go.”
In February 2018, DeGeneres surprised Kimmel when she revealed that the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles had named a room on the Heart Institute floor after Billy. “Wow,” Kimmel said as he wiped tears from his eyes and planted a kiss on DeGeneres’ cheek.
September 2018
Kimmel joked during one episode from his late night show that McNearney has more love for Beyonce than she does for him.
“My wife loves Beyoncé,” he said. “I would say she loves Beyoncé more than me, but that would be like saying she loves rainbows more than the stomach virus. It’s not that close between me and Beyoncé.”
He continued, “If Beyoncé, for whatever reason, ever decided to say, ‘That’s it ladies, these men are animals. They will never change. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough. Get information. It’s time to kill them all.’ If that happens, I don’t want to be there, okay? Because I know that when it comes to taking sides, my wife is on Beyoncé’s side.”
September 2020
Kimmel provided insight into the relationship between him and McNearney’s colleague during an appearance on the channel “SmartLess” podcast, in which he says: ‘Sometimes I dream a joke or think about something in the middle of the night, and what I do is, because I can’t hold it in, I wait for her to start moving and then I tell her what was thinking I (on). In the back of my mind I think to myself, this is her job, so it’s okay for me to do this. That’s how I rationalize it.”
December 2020
Kimmel announced via Instagram that he and McNearney would match donations of up to $25,000 to St. Joseph Center, a Los Angeles-based charity that helps struggling families, to spread cheer this holiday season.
“Let’s make sure every child gets presents this year. @StJosephCtr makes sure LA kids and their parents have food to eat and presents to open. “With $25 you can bring holiday cheer to those who desperately need it,” he wrote, alongside a photo of Jane and Billy giggling together in a cardboard box under a Christmas tree.